


Cookies and Wallets

by Chibifukurou



Category: Toradora!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 17:17:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5464604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chibifukurou/pseuds/Chibifukurou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taiga and Ryuuji can't seem to catch a break. They are supposed to be having a picnic with their respective crushes, only things keep going wrong.</p><p>*Takes place towards the beginning of the anime*</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cookies and Wallets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SilentJo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentJo/gifts).



> A big thank you to Steelneko for their beta - all remaining mistakes are my own.
> 
> I hope you like the story!

Taiga curled into a tight ball as her warm blankets were ripped away. "Ryuuji!"

"Come on, Taiga! I already cleaned up the apartment. If you sleep any longer we're not going to have time to make cookies before we meet Kushieda and Kitamura at the riverbank."

Rolling over, Taiga hid her face in her frilly nightgown. "Leave me alone!"

"I told you that you needed to start going to sleep earlier. Your light was still on when I went to bed at eleven."

Taiga growled a couple indistinguishable curses. Ryuuji would get the point without her having to put in the extra effort to form real words.

"If you get up now, we might even have some time for breakfast. I brought rice and mackerel.”

That was enough to get her moving, if only at a slow crawl towards the edge of the bed.

"I'll be in the kitchen when you’re finished getting ready."

She was a little more awake by the time she made it to the kitchen, dressed in a frilly shirt and brown dress. Ryuuji was dressed in that ridiculous outfit he wore whenever he was trying to look cool. "Why did you agree to meet Kushieda and Kitamura so early!" she whined, hiding her face against the tabletop, barely moving at the clunk noise made when Ryuuji put the dishes down on the table in front of her.

"You were the one that decided you wanted to try and make cookies for Kitamura before we met for a picnic." When she looked up, he was already digging around in her cabinets, pulling out bowls and measuring cups.

"Is all that really necessary? Usually I just put everything in the bowl until it looks right."

She could practically see Ryuuji's hair stand on end, probably at the idea of doing anything without measuring out every tiny detail. He was such a neat freak. "It's a miracle that your last cookies were even edible. You could have done a lot worse than add too much salt."

Taiga pulled her breakfast closer to her. It was too early for this. At least he'd made sure to bring extra rice.

She'd barely finished off the food before Ryuuji whisked the dishes away in the sink. "Come on, I'm not making the cookies by myself. I'm not the one who is trying to impress Kitamura."

Growling, Taiga jumped up from the table and stomped over to the counter. "Fine! But he better like these."  She made a grab for the ingredients stacked on the other side of the counter. Her height worked against her, since she could only brush a finger against the edge of the flour container. "Give me the eggs."

"Are you sure you know…"

"Give me the eggs now, before I come over there and take them."

Ryuuji held up an appeasing hand. "I was just thinking I should be the one to crack them. Just so we don't end up with shells in the mix."

"I can do it!" Taiga made as if to lunge around the counter at him?.

Ryuuji moved the eggs towards her side of the counter. He did a really poor job of pretending he wasn't watching her. Determined to prove him wrong, Taiga took an egg and focused on it. She could do this. So what if she'd managed to accidentally crush one out of every two eggs the last time she'd made cookies? She'd fished out the egg shells. Well, most of them anyway.

After she pulverized the fourth egg in a row, Ryuuji pulled the bowl away from her. She braced for some snotty comment about how he'd told her she couldn’t handle it. Instead, he just cracked two eggs into the bowl, managing not to get any shell in while he was doing it.  He shoved it back over to her, along with a measuring cup full of flour. "Go ahead and mix those together."

"Thanks."

"For what?" Ryuuji didn't even glance up, Too busy concentrating on getting the perfect amount of sugar into a measuring cup.

For not teasing her about not being able to do something as simple as crack eggs. For coming over to help her make cookies that Kitamura could actually eat. "Nothing."

The cookies come out perfect. Which isn't a surprise give how closely Ryujji has been keeping an eye on them. If she'd been left alone with them there was no way she'd have been able to keep from pulling them out of the oven early. She hated waiting. "So what else are we supposed to be bringing to the picnic?"

"I packed some rice balls, pickled vegetables, and a couple odds and ends." Ryujji blushed and yanked at his bangs in that way that he always did when he was trying to find his face. Which probably meant he'd packed an entire feast or something. He was so predictable when it came to handling household chores.

Taiga rolled her eyes. "So how much longer do we have to wait until the cookies are cool?" The smell of them was making her stomach rumble.

"At least another seven minutes. If we stick them in a bag now they are going to crumble."

Sighing, Taiga banged her head against the counter. Everything took so long!

"Why don't you go brush your teeth while I get things packed up?"

"Fine." At least that would be better than having to sit here and smell yummy food and not being able to eat it.

*

Of course Ryujji had everything properly bundled up and looking perfect by the time she'd brushed her teeth and managed to get her frizzy mane of red hair under control. "You ready to go, Taiga?"

"Yeah."

It was a nice day out.  There was barely a cloud in the sky and the way down towards the river bank wasn't too full of people. She thought they might actually make it without incident, before she caught sight of two of the younger classman from their school.

Unfortunately, they caught  sight of her at the same time. Their wide, panicked eyes skittered from Taiga to Ryujji. She could practically hear their stupid voiced as they leaned towards each other and started whispering. Keeping an eye on Ryujji the whole time.

Ryujji, of course, didn't notice. Too busy trying to make friends with a cat that was sleeping on a nearby store's front step. He was digging in the food bag, probably planning to give the mangy beast some of their food.

"I got to go take care of something, Ryujji. Try not to give that beast too much of our food."

Ryujji waved her off. Kneeling down to try and get the cat to stop ignoring him. She'd have a few minutes to take care of things while he was busy. She clenched her fist and stomped towards their whispering schoolmates.

They saw her coming, and she could practically see them thinking about making a run for it. They managed to hold their ground, but by the time she got near them they already had their wallets out. One of them stepped forward, while the other hid behind him." Please tell Takasu we didn't mean to spy on your date."

The other boy spoke up, his voice high pitched with fear."We really didn't mean to! Take the money. Don't let him beat us up."

"I keep telling you we aren't dating!" She yelled. Forgetting to keep her voice low enough to keep Ryujji from hearing her. She grabbed the front of the first boys shirt and dragged him down to her level."Now take your wallets and get out of here. We're trying to have a nice day!"

The second boy made a run for it. "Well, why aren't you leaving?" Taiga snarled.

"I don't think he can, since you're still holding his shirt." Ryujji said from behind her.

Blushing, she let the boy go. He followed his friend in a mad dash.

Ryujji's ruffled her hair. "Thanks for that. It would have been a pain having to take the time to drop the wallets off at the school. We might have been late to the picnic."

Taiga pulled away and tried to smooth her hair back into place. Using the motion to hide her red face. "Whatever. You didn't give all of our food to that cat, did you?"

"Don't worry, I saved enough for everybody."

"Meow!" The cat said from where it was winding around Ryujji's legs. It was Ryujji's turn to blush.

"Come on, it would be a shame to have gone to all this trouble and still be late." Taiga ran off towards the river bank. Hearing a scuffle behind her as Ryujji tried to catch up. Hopefully her blush would be gone by the time she got there.

She didn't want Kitamura to start thinking she had feelings for Ryujji. It had been hard enough to convince him otherwise the first time.

Fin


End file.
